Cricket in Morocco might seem as feasible as the Tour de France in the Sahara Desert, but it makes sense for one top Arab multi-millionaire.
It was Abdul Rahman Bukhatir who, back in 1981, envisaged turning Sharjah, an outpost in Arabia, into another Mecca for world cricket, after falling for the game when at school in Pakistan. His cricket stadium in the United Arab Emirates was then just a concrete block and a couple of tents, with the grass playing area leased from the local football club, but he had faith.
Today it is resplendent with multi-tiered stands, floodlights and the ring of confidence that comes with hosting 191 one-day internationals, more than all the grounds in England combined. Sharjah has even hosted two Tests, when last January it stepped in to offer a safe haven for Pakistan to play the West Indies.
Arrangements are now being made for the series recently cancelled between Pakistan and Australia to take place in Sharjah.
The question is, can Bukhatir repeat that success in Tangiers? All the signs suggest the answer is yes.
His latest venture already has a state-of-the-art stadium, called ”world-class” by Malcolm Speed, the Australian CEO of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Speed was there on the opening day of the Morocco Cup, a triangular affair involving Pakistan, Sri Lanka and South Africa, along with excited groups of local children who have already been coached well in chanting ”Pakistan Zindabad”, even if leg breaks are beyond them.
Any serious Moroccan XI is a long way off, and its principal purpose would be to attract development funding rather than to pose a challenge to the game’s established powers.
Wealthy as he is, Bukhatir would rather he did not have to underwrite Tangiers by himself. He is angling for financial support from the ICC to pay for things such as an electronic scoreboard, a media centre and further seating. This can only be given to countries that achieve ICC Associate status, which is a way off for Morocco.
So Bukhatir has hired the Indian legend Mohinder Amarnath on a three-year contract to be the Moroccan Cricket Federation coach. Once the team reach Associate level, they will attract development capital from the ICC. Even so, Bukhatir is investing £14-million in the Tangiers complex across the next five years, for non-cricketing facilities such as an 18-hole golf course, villas, and a luxury hotel.
Tangiers is ideal for cricket fans based in Europe and Africa, as the 200 or so self-funded spectators from England, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and even Belgium confirm. One local travel agent received requests for 120 visas from Pakistan alone.
Sharjah pulls in thousands when a team from the Indian subcontinent plays even a qualifying game. But gate receipts are not the reason he is looking to expand.
Sharjah did not turn a profit until the mid-1990s, when rights to televised cricket were finally given their true worth by the late Mark Mascarenhas of WorldTel, who would also become Sachin Tendulkar’s agent. His successful £8,5-million bid for the 1996 World Cup started a new era.
Bukhatir has formed his own television production company, TenSports, and owns the cable and satellite channel Taj TV, which has a Middle East and Asian footprint. Its most recent coup was securing the Asian rights to football’s World Cup.
”Vertical integration was the logical step,” he says with a Cheshire cat smile. It is certainly in the game plan to invite teams to play in his stadiums, to be filmed by his cameras, to be shown on his station.
It all leaves him perfectly placed to exploit cricket, especially if he can arrange the clash that hundreds of millions wish to see.
The Indian government forbids the national team from playing Pakistan as a result of the border tension in Kashmir. Officials on both sides, though, are confident the teams will meet again soon — on a neutral ground. The television rights to these matches have stratospheric value. A five-match one-day series, should it ever come off, would be worth more than that £8,5-million that Mascarenhas paid for the whole 1996 World Cup, according to industry insiders.
Bukhatir is on good terms with Jagmohan Dalmiya, the head of the Indian board of control and an increasingly important power broker in the game. When India and Pakistan were unable to play each other in their own countries, between 1989 and 1996, Bukhatir’s Sharjah venue acted as effectively a second home for them.
So while this year’s Morocco Cup had a price tag of $2,5-million, and made a loss, Bukhatir hopes that it will serve as an advert for the new stadium.
Attracting India to play is crucial even if the opposition is not Pakistan, as it is home of the largest and most lucrative TV market for cricket. England and Australia would be welcome, too, because they have great worldwide appeal — everyone likes to see them lose.
Tangiers may end up being Bukhatir’s biggest gift to the cricket world, for it is a venue that can host games for nine months of the year. It is immune to the heat and humidity of the Indian subcontinent, southern-hemisphere winds and rain, and the English ”summer”. Tangiers is ”a very good option for world cricket”, the ICC’s Speed confirms.
The expansion will not stop there. David Richardson, the former South African wicketkeeper and now ICC commercial manager, says that Abu Dhabi ”is just around the corner from becoming an international venue”.
Tangiers is in a similar time zone to Britain, but also offers live cricket in prime time for India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. All those eyeballs, all those channels, all that empty space waiting for a sponsor’s logo.
It will be television viewers around the world, above all in India, who will determine if Bukhatir has built a white elephant or a gold mine.